Petra - all tombed out!

Isme Isaac (Dad's Arabic is still limited).

Today we went to Petra, and it was amazing! We woke at 6am, got ready and drove down to the carpark at the visitor's centre, there was no one there that early!

A path spirals past some initial rock cut tombs that were just a glimpse of what is to come. After these tombs, you enter the siq, the tall and narrow canyon used as a road by the Nabateans over 2000 years ago, it leads to the petra old city. The siq winds around, suspense lingering at each corner as we await what's next.

 After a considerable but beautiful walk, you catch a glimmer of 'the treasury' through one of the most narrow section of the siq. This leads to a wide open space, the treasury towers over. It is huge and incredibly ornate. Fun Fact Time: the Bedouins shot at the tomb believing treasure would eventually gush out, thus, there is some damage to the monument. Dad enjoyed a coffee here and we sat and enjoyed the view for a while. Many locals offered camel, horse and donkey rides down into the valley, we didn't take up this offer and walked, however I managed to get a snap with this guy before we left (Dad would like you, well especially Elijah, to know that Isaac is the only human in this photo, Dad is not in it).

There were many more tombs as  we walked on, we didn't follow the normal track to the ancient amphitheatre and instead hiked to the top of the cliff on the left hand side, we reached the high place of sacrifice, where there are ruins of the Nabatean sacrificial site, it includes the basins that held blood and water. The views from this point were absolutely breathtaking.


We had a break at the top then hiked down a different route, stopping at many different tombs and rock formations on the way to the ground, most of which we could walk inside of. One such example of this was the garden tomb, there was no garden here (or anywhere) but a fountain, cistern and channels suggest that it used to have lush greenery. The photo to the right shows the gorge we had just hiked down from the inside of this tomb.

We had a break once we finally reached the Petra old city, we walked past multiple Roman ruins. After we had rejected all the offers for a donkey ride, we started walking to what is known as the 'monastery,' a huge tomb (and once church) on the top of one of the very tall mountains. By this point our legs were already like jelly, however we pressed on.... it was definitely worth it. The monastery is HUGE and amazing, we had a freshly squeezed orange juice whilst marveling in it's beauty. We then walked past the monastery to the very top of the mountain and soaked in the view. The photo to the left shows the monastery whilst we're at the top of the mountain, the track we came up comes out just at the right of the tomb.

We walked down from the mountain, each way took about 40 minutes. We investigated a huge Nabatean temple which astonishingly was only discovered in 1993. We walked on the old Roman road, past the surrounding columns to the royal tombs, we could walk inside these and they were also huge, one is shown to the right.

It was then a  short walk to the amphitheatre, where we sat and watched the sun go down on the tombs, it started to get cool as we made the 40 minute walk back through the siq to our car.

Isme Shaun. A guide at the high place of sacrifice showed us the place where the animal was killed, the blood drained down into a cistern so that worshipers could dip their fingers in it and process around their god. I'm so thankful for the sacrifice that Jesus has given the once and for all sacrifice which secures our victory over death!

The guide also pointed to one of the caves and told us that he and his 97 year old father have lived there for the last 17 years!

The whole experience was truly extraordinary. What a great privilege to share it with my son!